At Close Range

At Close Range is a 1986 American neo-noir crime drama film directed by James Foley from a screenplay written by Nicholas Kazan, based on the real life rural Pennsylvania crime family led by Bruce Johnston Sr. which operated during the 1960s and '70s. It stars Sean Penn and Christopher Walken, with Mary Stuart Masterson, Crispin Glover, Tracey Walter, Christopher Penn, Eileen Ryan, David Strathairn and Kiefer Sutherland in supporting roles. At Close Range was theatrically released by Orion Pictures on April 18, 1986 in the United States. It received mostly positive reviews from critics, with Penn's and Walken's performances receiving particular praise. Despite the warm reviews, the film was not a box office success, grossing a total of $2,347,000 at the North American box office, earning less than its production budget of $6,500,000. Plot Brad Whitewood Sr. is a career criminal and the leader of his family's gang of rural backwoods criminals. Sr's criminal enterprises intersect when his son, Brad Whitewood Jr., a floundering, out-of-work teenager living in near squalor with his mother, grandmother, brother and mother's boyfriend, comes to stay with him. When his father shows up in a flashy car with a pocket full of $100 bills, Brad Jr. formulates a desire to join his father's life of crime. At first, Jr. starts a gang with his brother, Tommy, fencing their stolen goods through Brad Sr.'s criminal network. As a result of entanglements with his 16-year-old girlfriend, Terry, Brad Jr. seeks full entry into his father's gang, but tries to back out after witnessing a murder. Eventually, Brad Jr's gang is arrested while stealing tractors, and the FBI and local law enforcement attempt to lean on Brad Jr. to get him to turn evidence on his father's gang. During Brad Jr.'s time in jail, Brad Sr. becomes convinced that Terry is a risk to his activities, thinking that Brad Jr. may confide details to Terry and that she has a big mouth. In an attempt to destroy her relationship with Brad Jr., Brad Sr. rapes Terry after getting her drunk and stoned. After a prison visit where Terry, accompanied by Brad Jr's mother, has a conversation with Brad Jr., it seems that Brad Jr. begins to cooperate with the police. The members of Brad Jr's gang are subpoenaed, and Brad Sr. feels his only recourse is to eliminate them. The gang kills Lucas, Aggie and Tommy. Brad Jr. and Terry plan to flee to Montana, but they're ambushed. Terry is killed, and Brad Jr. is seriously wounded.